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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
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God given chance of a new hit
By Nick Curtis, Evening Standard 12.03.08
Star cast: Ralph Fiennes, Tamsin Greig, Janet McTeer and Ken Stott will be teaming up in God of Carnage
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Expectation sits heavily on Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage. In 1996 the then little known French writer's play Art opened at Wyndham's Theatre. It stayed there for six years. The story of three middle-aged men who fall out when one buys an all-white painting, it could be read as an intimate comedy, a metaphor for masculinity or a tragic exploration of miscommunication. It was a phenomenon.
A critical and popular hit, Art proved hugely resilient to cast changes. It travelled well, across the country and worldwide, and it made its director Matthew Warchus and its producers (including the canny Sean Connery) rich.
Other Reza plays subsequently produced here - The Unexpected Man, Life x 3 - were well received but didn't repeat Art's commercial and aesthetic magic. Clearly, it's hoped that God of Carnage will.
There are similarities. Once again, Reza shows us how easily the superficially civilised business of bourgeois life can be upset by a seemingly minor incident. In this case, it's a fight between two children that brings their parents into conflict. The cast is again an alchemical mix of stars and proven theatrical skill: Ralph Fiennes, Tamsin Greig, Janet McTeer and the great Ken Stott, who acted the supposedly crowd-pleasing double-act of Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay off the stage in Art.
But perhaps most crucially, God of Carnage reunites Warchus with the creative team and the writer-translator, Christopher Hampton, who ensured that Art not only worked on a domestic and a universal level but also that it was funny. Reza herself has occasionally expressed acid surprise that English audiences consider her a comic writer. It has been suggested that she regards the warring couples of her new play as symbolic of the warring factions in the Middle East and the inability of either couple to say sorry as a metaphor for America's bombastic presence in the region.
But don't let that put you off. With Warchus and Hampton leading a cast this strong, we can also expect a polished comedy. Will it be as funny, or as long-lived, as Art? We'll see.
• God of Carnage is previewing at the Gielgud Theatre (0844 482 5130, www.godofcarnage.com).
